Saturday, January 26, 2013

Chris “Huk” Loranger was once the epitome of hardwork and
dedication. This no-name figure (in terms of competitive gaming background) played his ass off in the beta and alongside his pesky probe, became
one of the most prolific players before the release of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. After the launch, he continued this
momentum and garnered a 1st place spot (besting Kiwikaki in the finals) at the 1st Major
League Gaming (Dallas) tournament to feature SC2back
in 2010. Not content with being one of the best “Foreigner” players, he joined
forces with Team Liquid and packed
his bags to Korea, where he would with compete and train with the Old Generations team (RIP) to become a world class champion.

Huk's Trademark Heart

Legion of fans would support Huk along the way, as his marathon streaming sessions were fueling the foreigner audience with the intense competition that is the Korean ladder They cheered when he fought hard in
Code S, and cried when he won Dreamhack
Winter2011. Besides a little air
of ignorance (Top 3 Control anyone?) he was the foreigner Protoss sweetheart.
But then it all suddenly changed when he abruptly joined Evil Geniuses (All about them Benjamin’s). Even though he had signed a contract that is rumored to be one of the highest in progaming, his performance started to become lackluster. The Canadian Protoss soon became more known as
a “12 year old girl” (Due to his lack of grammar skills on his twitter account)
than the hardest working foreigner. His gameplay was also affected too, as his
ultra-aggressive and micro-based style was slowly becoming absolute as everyone
else around him changed with the times. I was never the biggest fan of the man,
but his downfall was something that I could sympathize with his fans.

This past GSL season though, he did something that surprised
everyone, and probably EG management
as well, as he qualified this season of Code S. Going through an Up and Down
group that consisted Fantasy, Flying, Nestea, and Finale. Things were looking good for Mr.
Loranger until his Code S group was revealed, and he certainly got the short
end of the stick in this regard. This group consisted of the current GSL champion Sniper, and two of the most
skilled terrans on the planet, Bomber
and Gumiho, this certainly could be
called the “Group of Death,” or the "Group of Huk's demise."

I will not give any false allusion of a
Cinderalla Story here, this past Thursday Huk got smashed in
his games. Doing these aggressive mass gateway builds that have not been
popular since early 2011, his opponents did circles around him (Gumiho
literally did with his Marines on their 2nd game). The only game he
won is where Sniper went down a ramp
and lost his army to Huk’s continued all-in aggression, an amateur to move say
the least. The Canadian Protoss, maybe a bit intimidated by his groupmates,
showed risky and unsolid play, that by nature either makes someone look
brilliant or awfully bad, and for the EG player that day,
the latter is the one that fitted the bill. Let’s hope he can come back strong,
for the foreigner fans and Canadian faithful.

On a side note, I was extremely happy to see Bomber and Gumiho advance, who are probably two of the most fun players to
watch on the entire planet. Their skill is so evident in their play, as they
are literally everywhere in the games, and not afraid to go to the late game,
where people seem to think the other two races have a massive advantage (they
kind of do, or their mechanics are easier to manage late game than Terrans),
but these two guys show that they can hang. I hope they can go far in this GSL.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Within my generation, and people slightly older than me (early
20s- to mid 30s), Quentin Tarantino is no doubt one of the most well known director
in Hollywood. The creator of movies like Jackie
Brown and Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino's
movies are stylized and invoke a sense of rudeness that peolpe will feel
extremley positive or negative about.
His latest creation is DjangoUnchained, a homage for his love of
Spagheti Westerns but with the modern twist of having a black main character played
by Jamie Foxx, who in the movie is a slave. It has garnered commercial and
academic success as people have taken a liken to Tarantino's vision.

I, for one though, am not a huge fan Tarantino's work. I enjoy
Hong Kong cinema immensely, Johnny To is my favorite director of all time, and
while Tarantino hides no fact that he takes inspiration from Asian cinema, but
if you watch the source material, you realize he uses them more than just inspiration. At least for me, I find his work
nothing spectatcular, and with his recent film Django, it seems like he has
brought some sort of critical thought about race relationships in the
States, but is this really the case?

This video from a friend on Facebook shows an interview done with
Tarantino, on the British public channel
C4, where he boasts how proud he is of his work,
encouraging thoughtful discourse on all sides of the aisle. This excellent post on blackfeminists.org just show how much Quentin really knows very little about
Black history, or any history in fact. One of the finer points in the blog:

"To add insult to injury, he goes on to messianically assert that the primary aim of the movie was to give ‘black American males a western hero that could actually be empowering.’ Forget historical facts like the Stono and Nat Turner slave rebellions."

The post is short but hits effectively on some of the
talking points, like his portrayal of African American characters, in his
previous films, have been less than constructive.

I started this blog a few months ago with all intentions to stay consistent with blog posts and improve my writing skills, but sickness in my family has forced me to assume duties and responsibilities that no one person should ever tackle single handily. With a new year (And my grandmother's health improving 10 fold), and a new mind set, I plan to make use of my time and improve myself as a person and all of the people around me.

So cheers and let may 2013 be the best year yet for everyone, and here is a Marvel/Peanuts mash up picture that is sure to bring a smile to your face.